Son,

I shovel my own walks.  With the foot of snow presently on my sidewalks I just shovel a path as wide as my little red snow shove.  But these are dangerous times.  My snow shovel has a metal handle.  I am afraid of being struck by lightning.

Now that may sound ridiculous.  And for good cause.  We are not supposed to have thunder, lightning, snow, and tornadoes  at the same time.  But we are.

Heavy wet snow was falling and I was assessing the work ahead.  The weather service was predicting six to twelve inches – but I like to get out there early.  I would rather shovel three times with three inches than shovel once with ten inches.  I can whip through my sidewalks with three inches of snow if short order.  But ten to twelve inches and I break my back.

So the snow was accumulating and I was pondering when there was this great flash of light outside.  Whoa, I thought, what was that?  That thought was followed by a huge clap of thunder.  The thunder rattled the windows in my house.  And the snow was falling.

I have been around this world for a while.  My memory does not contain any information that allows me to make sense of this weather.  As a child we experienced some pretty heavy snow falls.  Out of school, on our sleds, warming by the space heater in the kitchen – those were the days.

This storm makes me wonder what memories my grandchildren will have of the storm of 2008.  Or is this to be the norm with changing global weather patterns?

Dad